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Indian Civil Nuclear News & Discussions.

India, Canada ink energy pact; to sign civil nuclear agreement


New Delhi, Nov 17 (PTI) Aiming to give a major push to their ties, India and Canada today signed an energy pact and decided to ink a civil nuclear agreement and undertake a feasibility study for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said there were vast opportunities in the economic field and invited Canadian investments in India in areas like high technology and infrastructure.

During his hour-long talks, Singh discussed with his Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper the entire gamut of bilateral ties and situation in the region, particularly Pakistan and Afghanistan.

After the talks, the two sides signed an MoU in the field of energy and an MoU for setting up a Joint Study Group for conducting feasibility study for CEPA.
 
Australian opposition anger at India-Canada uranium deal

Updated November 18, 2009 20:37:48

Australia's federal opposition is complaining of what it calls a colossal missed opportunity for Australia, after it was revealsed that Canada is soon to resume uranium sales to India. The Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has visited New Delhi to sign a series of agreements on trade and energy, and he has also announced a new civilian nuclear deal with India, which will include big new uranium sales.

India has been asking for Australian uranium for years, but the government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has a ban in place preventing any sales.

Radio Australia:Asia Pacific:Story:Australian opposition anger at India-Canada uranium deal
 
Australian opposition anger at India-Canada uranium deal

Updated November 18, 2009 20:37:48

Australia's federal opposition is complaining of what it calls a colossal missed opportunity for Australia, after it was revealsed that Canada is soon to resume uranium sales to India. The Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has visited New Delhi to sign a series of agreements on trade and energy, and he has also announced a new civilian nuclear deal with India, which will include big new uranium sales.

India has been asking for Australian uranium for years, but the government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has a ban in place preventing any sales.

Radio Australia:Asia Pacific:Story:Australian opposition anger at India-Canada uranium deal

They should be very very angry :victory: Kevin Rudds pro-China policy costs Australia billions of dollars worth India's energy business...
 
Harper confident of Indo-Canadian civil nuclear deal in coming weeks


New Delhi: Stressing that prejudices of the past would not be allowed to get into the way of an Indo-Canadian nuclear deal, Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper has said that such a deal ought to become a reality over the coming few weeks. In making this assertion, Harper also clarified that Canada had no issues about the safety of nuclear installations in India, notwithstanding the hullabaloo created by political parties in the opposition back home.

"We were anxious to conclude the agreement. But there is still some amount of work to be done," Harper said on a television interview.
Queried if there were any problems on reaching an agreement Harper said, "I don't think that there is anything that can't be resolved. In fact, I and prime minister Singh agreed to take a close examination over the next few weeks of what the remaining hurdles are and how that can be resolved." An Indo-Canadian nuclear deal was widely anticipated to materialise in the course of his trip.
"It is a very high priority for the government to get this done and the same thing is true on the Indian side," he added.

Referring to concerns being voiced back home over any such deal, Harper rejected the objections as being a "throwback to 1970s."

This was a reference to his country's decision to snap nuclear ties with India after the original 1974 Pokhran tests, once it became clear that India may have used fissionable material produced from Canadian-designed reactors.
 
Why is it always so easy with India to get all approval from countries.

I guess its lobbying or something, point is India is in which lobby Russia, USA or Eu?

maybe because our intentions have always been good and we haven't supplied nuclear weapons tech. to monkeys ready to click the button labeled "KABOOM". :) (yeah im referring to people across the great Himalayas.. bite me if it hurt!!)
 

  • Canada wants to sell CANDU nuclear reactors to India. A better idea is to sell India the whole company :D

Friday, November 20, 2009

With Prime Minister Stephen Harper's recent trip to India, a lot of attention has been focused on the possibility of saving AECL, a federally owned crown corporation, by selling CANDU nuclear reactors to India. Considerable evidence suggests that this scenario is unlikely. A better, more realistic way to rescue the Canadian nuclear industry would be to sell AECL to India and use Indian technology for our next generation of Ontario reactors.

To understand why, it is necessary to look at various technological options and the tortuous history of Indo-Canadian nuclear ties.

AECL and its CANDU nuclear reactors are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Domestically, CANDU reactors have suffered from massive cost overruns and prolonged shutdowns. The sluggish Ontario economy and reduced electricity consumption means that, at best, AECL may look forward to some refurbishment work on older units and the construction of two new units in Canada over the next decade.

Internationally, things look even grimmer. Europe seems to have bet on AREVA's reactors while America is considering AREVA and Westinghouse designs. South Korea and China, which had purchased six CANDUs, have also chosen to look at AREVA, Westinghouse and GE models.

Other CANDU customers include small states with fragile economies, namely Romania and Argentina. Any potential deals would be small and uncertain.

There are reasons why CANDU is such a hard sell internationally. Compared to our Russian, European and American rivals, Canada has less to offer in terms of export credits, industrial offsets and diplomatic arm-twisting.

Additionally, all the rival firms produce light water reactors, which require enriched uranium. CANDU, on the other hand, uses heavy water reactors, which rely on natural uranium and heavy water as a moderator.

This difference underscores a key problem with a proposed privatization (sale) of AECL and its CANDU. The most likely purchasers are AREVA, GE and Westinghouse, the very manufacturers which make competing reactors based on the completely different light water technology.

These firms would be highly unlikely to introduce CANDU heavy water technology into their overseas portfolios, given the radical differences between the two technologies. In fact, the biggest incentive for these firms to purchase CANDU would be to eliminate a competitor in overseas markets, while also getting a piece of Ontario's upcoming award of two new reactors.

The Ontario government seems determined to award this contract to AECL to protect domestic jobs and buttress a "national champion." Buying CANDU seems to be the only way for foreign reactor-makers to participate.

To slash costs, we can expect that any of these firms will try to standardize components among all of their units, both here and overseas. This means that even CANDU reactors built for Ontario will include increasing portions of foreign components.

The net result would likely be zero opportunities for CANDU outside Canada, and a gradually shrinking share of components for CANDUs sold domestically.

On its own, CANDU has poor prospects for international sales and is reliant on domestic sales. Clearly, this is not sustainable.

Selling AECL to anyone would yield immediate funds for a beleaguered government and an end to state subsidies. To get more from a sale, though, Canada should look at an alternative buyer rather than AREVA, GE or Westinghouse.

There is only one other nation in the world which has selected the same heavy water reactor technology as CANDU. India bought and evaluated two CANDUs and two American light water reactors in the late 1960s. Due to a shortage of domestic uranium, India decided to base a massive domestic nuclear program on heavy water technology.

India has built 17 reactors and is constructing six more currently. Indian heavy water reactors have been a scintillating success and, according to the Journal of Nuclear Engineering and Design, have achieved over 90% capacity utilization in the last decade. By contrast, the Ontario Clean Air Alliance reports the province's fleet of CANDUs sported a 65% utilization rate in 2005. The Canadian Nuclear Society claims an overall CANDU fleet performance of closer to 80%.

India's NPCIL has been able to lower costs and outperform AECL thanks to a massive pool of technical talent and an enormous, ever-expanding economy with increasing energy demands. The energy requirements are so high that NPCIL cannot construct heavy water reactors quickly enough, and needs to purchase foreign reactors. This led to the Indo-U. S. nuclear deal, which allows India to buy foreign reactors as long as they are open to inspections and used for civilian (non-military) purposes.

Multi-billion dollar deals have already been signed with Russian manufacturers and AREVA, while negotiations with Westinghouse are ongoing. The stakes are massive: India will deploy reactors worth $40-billion in the next decade. Half of these will be imported.

Over the next seven years, NPCIL plans to build eight indigenous 700 megawatt (MW) heavy water reactors and a 500 MW fast-breeder reactor, in addition to contracts with foreign manufacturers. When chairman S.K. Jain was asked how so many reactors could be built, he bluntly stated that NPCIL was cash-rich and had billions of dollars in reserve.


Given that India is familiar with heavy water technology, one would think that CANDUs would have a better chance than other reactors. However, the contracts signed so far have been for the unfamiliar light water reactors built by CANDU competitors.

This baffling situation is due primarily to historic boondoggles perpetrated by previous Liberal administrations. In 1973, India tested nuclear weapons despite not being signatories to the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (NPT). India refused to sign the NPT because neighbouring China, which had attacked India in 1962, was permitted under the NPT to possess nuclear weapons.

Canada accused India of using Canadian-supplied reactors to build the first elements of her nuclear arsenal. The Liberal government then took a fateful decision that ultimately resulted in CANDU's current predicament: It suspended all nuclear cooperation with India.

As a result, India developed an indigenous series of heavy water reactors that dramatically outperform CANDUs in performance and cost attributes.

According to University of Toronto professor Arthur Rubinoff, no nation reacted more harshly to India's 1998 nuclear tests than Jean Chretien-led Canada. The Liberals recalled Canada's ambassador, cancelled trade talks and urged the world community to take harsh action.

These actions, akin to cutting off one's nose to spite one's face, explains why despite the similarities, it is AREVA and the Russians who have scored reactor sales in India rather than CANDU.

Our Conservative government has tried valiantly to reverse bitterness created by self-destructive Liberal policies. Voting in favour of the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal was the first step. Mr. Harper and his huge delegation to India emphasized eagerness to resume nuclear trade.

Canada may have already missed the bus on this file, however. Obstruction from non-proliferation zealots within Canada's legendary bureaucracy has resulted in Russia and France leapfrogging us and signing reactor deals. Also, the Indians are nervous about the minority status of Stephen Harper's government and how an alternate regime may deal with India.

Additionally, the more advanced state of the Indian nuclear industry and superior performance of Indian reactors raise legitimate questions about whether there are any advantages to buying CANDU.

On the other hand, rescuing AECL with Indian ownership would have obvious benefits.

India is developing a new thorium reactor -- an element both India and Canada have in abundance -- which will be the world's cleanest and safest. With its enormous clout, size and access to low-cost technological solutions, India is much better positioned to achieve global sales.


The participation of an Indian owned AECL in India's massive domestic nuclear program, as well as potential Indian-led foreign sales efforts, would be likely to generate more employment and benefits for Canada's nuclear industry. It is clearly a more attractive proposition than the futility of a small independent player competing against muscular, better capitalized foreign firms backed by superpowers.

India has achieved a tremendous track record of rescuing faltering foreign firms in places like Europe. Britain has sold the remnants of its auto industry (Jaguar Land Rover) to an Indian firm and recently pledged funding to the Tata Group for the production of an electric car in the U.K.

Tata Steel has also purchased and overhauled Europe's largest steel manufacturer, Corus Steel.

Europeans have entrusted Indian behemoths to rescue such important strategic industries as steel and automotive sectors. There is no reason why Canada's faltering AECL cannot benefit from Indian ownership as well. It may be our only ticket to saving the nuclear industry.


Sell AECL to India
 
Australian opposition anger at India-Canada uranium deal

Updated November 18, 2009 20:37:48

Australia's federal opposition is complaining of what it calls a colossal missed opportunity for Australia, after it was revealsed that Canada is soon to resume uranium sales to India. The Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has visited New Delhi to sign a series of agreements on trade and energy, and he has also announced a new civilian nuclear deal with India, which will include big new uranium sales.

India has been asking for Australian uranium for years, but the government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has a ban in place preventing any sales.

Radio Australia:Asia Pacific:Story:Australian opposition anger at India-Canada uranium deal


Thats because they have gone the China way.. nothing wrong in it, it's their national strategy and roadmap and China is and will be a force to reckon with. Smart move by the Aussies and Canadians.
:tup:
 
They should be very very angry Kevin Rudds pro-China policy costs Australia billions of dollars worth India's energy business...

There is a running joke here in aussie... The capital of Australia is Beijing :D:D:D:D
 

MUMBAI, November 24, 2009

The fifth nuclear power reactor of the Rajasthan Atomic Power Station (RAPS-5) at Rawatbhatta, with a capacity of 220 MWe, reached criticality at 12.51 p.m. on Tuesday. This is the 18th nuclear power reactor in India to be commissioned in India. With this, the total nuclear power-generation capacity in India stands now at 4,340 MWe.

“The operation was very smooth. Everything went off perfectly,” S.K. Jain, Chairman and Managing Director of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) told The Hindu from the Control Room of the RAPS-5 reactor.

Although RAPS-5 is an indigenous Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR) built by the NPCIL, it uses natural uranium fuel imported from Russia. Hence it will come under the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) safeguards as per the Separation Plan under which India has agreed to put a total of 14 reactors under the safeguards. A few months earlier, the RAPS-2 reactor also started using natural fuel from Russia. The PHWRS use natural uranium as fuel, and heavy water as both coolant and moderator.

With RAPS-5 reaching criticality on Tuesday, Mr. Jain said, scientists and engineers of the station would conduct reactor physics experiments for a couple of weeks. The reactor would start generating its full power of 220 MWe by the end of December 2009 or the first week of January 2010.

Anil Kakodkar, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), said nuclear power capacity addition with RAPS-5 going critical was “a good thing.” The reactor was ready for some time and waiting for fuel. “This reactor forms part of the Separation Plan and accordingly, we have fuelled the reactor with imported fuel from Russia,” said Dr. Kakodkar, who is retiring on November 30 as Chairman, AEC and Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy.

Mr. Jain said, “Commissioning of the sixth reactor at RAPS is in the final stage. We will be ready for loading the fuel into the reactor in the first week of December. In ten days after the fuel is loaded, RAPS-6 will go critical.” It would also use fuel from Russia as part of the Separation Plan and hence come under the IAEA safeguards. RAPS-6 would start generating its full power of 220 MWe in February 2010.

The fourth reactor at Kaiga Atomic Power Station in Karnataka would be commissioned before the end of this financial year, that is, before March 31, 2010, Mr. Jain added. However, Kaiga-4, with a capacity of 220 MWe, will use indigenous natural uranium fuel from Jaduguda in Jharkhand.
 
Thorium Oxide from Monazite


Monazite available in India contains about 9 per cent Thorium Oxide. While in technological terms we are ready with the design of Advanced Heavy Water Reactor which would produce around two third of its energy from Thorium, large scale deployment of Thorium for power generation will be mainly in the third stage. This can start once large generation capacity based on fast reactors has been set up in the second stage of our nuclear power programme.
 
Nuclear Energy from Sea Sand

In Orissa, Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research (AMD) had identified 1.82 million tonnes of Thorium bearing monazite resources. Thorium is a fertile element and can be converted to fissile element to produce Atomic Energy in the 3rd stage of Nuclear Power Programme of India.
 
Nuclear Power Stations in States


Nuclear power stations have been built are under construction in Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh. Approval has been accorded for setting up additional reactors in Gujarat and Rajasthan, in October 2009. In addition, “in-principle” approval has been accorded for sites for future nuclear power reactors in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

Site at Bargi in Mandla district of Madhya Pradesh has been accorded in principle approval for setting up of 2x700 Mwe nuclear power station. The work on the project is planned to be taken up after completion of land acquisition and pre-project activities, estimated to take about two years.
 
Planting of Atomic Energy Projects


Administrative approval and financial sanction for RAPP-7&8 (2x700Mwe) at Rawatbhata, Rajasthan has been accorded in October 2009. Government has also accorded “in-principle” approval for the Kudankulam Atomic Power Project (KK) Unit – 3 to 6 (4x1000 Mwe) at Kudankulam, Tamil Nadu.

Work on Rajasthan Atomic Power Project (RAPP) Unit –7&8 has commenced. Completion of the project is planned for 2016-2017. The Nuclear Power Project at Kudankulam is planned to be executed in two stages on twin unit basis. The planning is to start work on KK-3&4 in the year 2010-11 followed by KK-5&6, 3 to 4 years later as the work on KK-3&4 tapers off. The completion period is about 6 years. The approved completion cost of RAPP-7&8 is Rs. 12,320 crore.
 
French Parliament ratifies Indo-French nuclear deal
Fri, Nov 27 02:28 PM

New Delhi, Nov 27 (PTI) Crossing a significant milestone, the Indo-French civil nuclear agreement was unanimously adopted by the French Parliament, paving way for companies to build nuclear power plants in India. The French National Assembly on Tuesday adopted a law authorising the ratification of the Cooperation Agreement between India and France on the Development of Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy, a French Embassy statement said.

The French Senate had adopted the law on October 15. "The unanimous vote by both Assemblies is an important milestone in the development of the civilian nuclear cooperation between France and India," the statement said.

France was the first country to sign a civil nuclear cooperation agreement with India within days of the lifting of the international nuclear trade embargo on India last year. French nuclear supplier Areva has been allocated the nuclear project site at Jaitapur in Maharashtra to initially build two power plants.

The India-specific waiver of the nuclear transfer guidelines of the Nuclear Suppliers Group was issued on September 6 and the agreement with France was signed on September 30. The ratification of the agreement by French Parliament will enable its early implementation, the statement said.
 
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